


Unsaid

by afewreelthoughts



Series: Ours is the Angst [8]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 07:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17382539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afewreelthoughts/pseuds/afewreelthoughts
Summary: "You hate your job, don’t you?" Renly thinks, as Stannis narrows his eyes at him across the Small Council table. And then, "You don't love me."





	Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt: "things you were afraid to say: stannis & renly"
> 
> I own nothing and make no money from this. Everything belongs to George R.R. Martin.

_You hate your job, don’t you?_  Renly thinks, as Stannis narrows his eyes at him across the Small Council table.

“Where is Robert?” he hisses.

Renly smiles. “You must be new here.”

“And where is  _everyone else_?”

“I don’t know,” Renly says, and he doesn’t. He and Loras have only recently returned from Highgarden, and knowing the makeup of the Small Council, it could be anything. Renly had wanted to arrive early at the council chamber because there was a chance he could have spent some time alone. He didn’t have the energy for courtly charm this morning.

Loras was busy training at this time of the day, and Renly hadn’t wanted to beg for his company. He knew young, hot-blooded men did that, went on their knees before their new lovers and begged for another moment in their presence, another chance to kiss their hot, bare skin before mundane life separated them for a few hours. But Renly hadn’t wanted to.

And it seemed the gods hadn’t wanted to grant his wish that he be let alone.

“Has anything changed since I was gone?” Renly asks.

This makes Stannis even angrier. His eyes narrow further, until they are slits. “Gone on important business for the crown?”

“Absolutely,” Renly says, thinking of the locket with Margaery’s portrait stowed safely in his room. “When’s the last time you’ve been home to Dragonstone?”

“Dragonstone isn’t my home, Renly,” he says, “and even if it were, my duty is here.”

“You should spend more time away, brother. Perhaps you’d warm to it a bit more?”

“You spend enough time away for the both of us,” Stannis says, and it’s not fair, Renly’s only been made Master of Laws, and Stannis speaks as though there’s a virtue in leaving his family and his people to fend for themselves. But is that really a surprise?

_You don’t love me, do you?_

The door slams open. Robert is standing in the doorway, blocking out all the light behind him. He slowly steps into the room and blinks. “What are you both doing here?”

Robert looks like he’s seen a ghost, and Renly rises without thinking and reaches out to him. He pulls back Robert’s chair and offers him his arm to lean against. Stannis sits still across from them. 

Robert’s mouth hangs open for a long moment before any sound comes out. “Jon… last night he…”

“What is it?” Renly asks. 

He knows Stannis hates it, that he still has some affection for Robert even after everything, but what is Renly supposed to do? Only love people who please the brother who never said he loved him? 

“Jon Arryn’s dead.”

Stannis blanches. “I’m sorry,” he says.

“Why? Did you do it?” Robert snaps. His eyes are unfocused, in drink or grief, Renly cannot tell. “Jon’s dead and Ned’s in the North, and I have no one.”

Renly opens his mouth to speak, to say something, he doesn’t know what, but Stannis’s eyes catch him first and something in them makes him stop. 

Stannis shakes his head.  _It’s not worth it._

Renly closes his mouth and merely places a hand on Robert’s shoulder. He sits in silence, as if he cannot see either one of them.


End file.
